Engagement Story Part 1: When Weather Gets in the Way

Happy Monday! I don’t know about you, but sometimes I just get the Monday blahs. And sometimes it’s great to have something to look forward to on a Monday. So…what I’m looking forward to today is a guest post by my husband! We’ve talked about this for a while and I felt like Aaron being the guest blogger in December would be perfect since it’s our wedding anniversary month. Why not share our engagement story, which started it all?! So without further ado, I would like to introduce Aaron as a guest blogger sharing his side of our engagement story. Enjoy!

Part 1: When Weather Gets in the Way

Mary and I had planned for her to visit me in Rolla, MO the weekend of June 28, 2014, a short weekend that took some convincing on my part to get her to come for, since we were planning to see each other the following weekends for other events. I was going with Mary to a wedding in WI on July 4th, and the following weekend would be my family’s annual float trip in MO. But, since I was going to propose, the weekend of the 28th was clearly the optimal choice for us to be alone and do our own thing.

When the day finally came for Mary to arrive at the St. Louis airport, naturally, there was bad weather elsewhere in the country, causing an ever-increasing delay of her flight. Two friends of mine, Allen and David, lived in St. Louis, so we had planned to grill at Allen’s house so that Mary could meet my friends that evening. Despite my knowledge of Mary’s late (and as of yet unknown) arrival time, I drove the 90 minutes to St. Louis to spend time at Allen’s house until the flight arrived. Allen, his wife Rebecca, and David already knew the significance of this weekend, so it was a nice opportunity for me to tell the details of my plan.

Allen, David, and I did a 10-mile run when I got there since it had been a while since we had run together. I told every detail of my plan, which they received with visible enthusiasm—they were excited too. For most of the run, however, I was quiet and preoccupied with a million thoughts racing through my mind as David and Allen discussed work related things. “What if Mary didn’t come,” I thought, “or what if she doesn’t want to go on a hike?”

When we got back, I discovered, much to my dismay, that Mary’s flight was delayed again. With the additional delay, we realized that Mary was not going to get to eat with us. We ate our grilled food, and my friends packed a dinner to go for me to give to Mary on the drive back to Rolla. Meanwhile, Mary called me saying that if her flight didn’t leave before midnight, she wouldn’t come. That meant there was a very good chance I wouldn’t see her this weekend, and I would have to settle on asking her during the float trip. After all the work I had put into my plan, I could not stand to see my perfect weekend go down the drain. There had only been one weekend in the past where our plans to see each other were foiled at the last minute due to weather. That was painfully devastating, but this, in my mind, would be a hundred times worse.

I recall my friend, David later describing how nervous I was that evening: “Your face looked white! You looked like you might pass out!” In fact, I felt fine, and my only worry was that Mary wouldn’t come. As a matter of fact, Mary had already considered canceling the whole trip. She had spoken with her mom (Kathy) a few days earlier, venting her frustrations and saying that she wasn’t even sure she wanted to visit me anymore (due to stress at work). “Oh, but you have to go,” said Kathy, knowing the importance of that weekend. Good save, Kathy! At last, Mary’s flight left…with her on board, and I was immensely relieved.

As I was about to leave for the airport, Allen, Rebecca, and David thought it a very comical idea to make a sign for me with Mary’s name, as if I were going to pick up a stranger. Although I was a bit less enthusiastic, I waited for them to write “MARY” on a big piece of cardboard. Unfortunately, an already not-too-happy Mary saw me from behind at the airport before I saw her, and she wasn’t too enthused about the sign. She had arrived a few minutes before I did, making this my first of many trespasses in the next 12 hours.